The floods of South India!

Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka experience floods in certain areas. My area! This recent news from my place is really disturbing. There is a water everywhere in a place that is almost a desert! How did this happen? Its one thing to have the experience vicariously sitting here in the engineering hall @ Madison and its another to be struggling through the flooded home to save your family and your hard earned money!

The sacred shrine of Sri Raghavendra was completely under water. The water was so fast that it killed some people in the temple! There were many cows (~60 of them) in the goshala which drowned! The head priest had to be rescued by a helicopter from Karnataka (thanks to the Karnataka government for the consideration that the AP counter-part did not have!). Raichur and Kurnool is flooded with over 13ft of water in most places. While some people say they had not seen such rain in over 100 years, media says that such a thing has never occurred in over 10,000 years! Of course it has not! Who expects floods in an arid area like this! Beechpalli bridge is sunk imagine the water in Krishna river for a bridge, that's over 50 ft., to sink! Tungabadra in which i never seen having over 10ft of water when you swam in the river, overflowed into Kurnool submerging it 13ft under water!

Whatever is the case, we as technologists failed because we could not predict it. We as technologists fail to deliver whenever there is a national calamity that comes unwarned to the people. We need a lot of work towards solving this problem of warning about natural calamities!

Its ironic that the central government has to explicitly convey there condolences. When that happens, its usually that they are saying that they are sorry but they don't want to do anything with that. Setting the fund seekers lower their expectations! The state government actually asked for 10,000 crores towards relief fund. How do they come up with those numbers? Why do they want something to be allocated explicitly to them? Why is there no national relief fund from which they can spend as the demands come? Are they so sick that they want to make money even in a case of national disaster? If they are, there is absolutely no difference b/w them and the scum that is looting the houses that are under water.

I really wish i were there to help my people out in this hour of need. I know its hypocritical of me to just wish and not do it when I can really do it, but I am really confused. All I can do is write about it. I know that I can not take a flight, go there and really participate in the rescue missions in my place. I don't mind the travel or the extra semester that I have to do for doing the same, but I really don't have the money to do that! And how do i go and co-ordinate with other people in rescuing people? If some one knows of a way where I can participate in the international rescue missions, let me know.

Chronicles of UWM

Hmm.. I was in the Operating Systems class when there was a question on "what happens when a read and write to the same location in memory takes place" ? I answered it as "hazard" and the professor was like "what was that?", i repeated "hazard" and he was like letting his ear out and asked me again, "whats that ?" some one in the class had to help me out and said "hazard"... Same thing? not really, it was having my indian accent in which i said "ha-zard" while he understood only when it was said "haz-ard"... Embarrassing incident. Coz, i knew that it was to be pronounced as "haz-ard" in USA, but instincts prevailed. Anyways, it surprises me that native speakers of English can not understand the variations in English! Hmm..

University of Wisconsin Madison

UWM in short is a big huge university. I am not exaggerating. I did not see other universities, but from what i hear, its huge for the US standards itself. There are over 150 buildings and each one is a big building. The entire school of engineering is in 5 buildings; Just to give you an idea on the size of each building. The Engineering hall is so confusing that the people who have been here for over a year still have not seen all the corners of the corridors of the Engineering hall. That's 1/5 buildings in school of engineering. So... enough said about the size of the buildings. The university also has almost 76 libraries.. wait.. i think its 78... anyways, has a freakishly large number of libraries... Supposed to have all the litrature crap and is the second largest library for political studies with Library of Congress being the largest!

The College is also second largest funded college with ~1bn dollars allocated each year. I still am exploring the area, but the place is really nice. Temperatures are just getting cold . Just the other day, it went to 36F(~2.5deg Centigrade!) because of the wind chill. The locals are telling that the winter is setting in early this year and thats not a good news for them! But coming in fall gives an oppertunity to acclamatize to the weather. I have got enough warm clothes for the snow fall and stuff. I hope they are enough. Anyways, I will be out only to catch a bus. That should be a max of 10 min wait.

There are metro busses in madison and are free for students. Or rather, they are sponsored by the students assosiation. We get free ride passes through out the year.

There is Hoofers sailing club here in Madison which has a very big 9x5 mile lake called Mendota. The sailing lessons are pretty cheap at $170 a year with unlimited free rides, friday socials, and a $65 kick-back if you work for 8 hours at the club in the subscribed year! The second cheapest sailing lessons in USA costs about $1500.. :)

There are a lot of student associations and its impossible to keep a track of all of them. Infact this is the only university in USA which has 2 independent student maintained newsletters. Not that it matters to me, I am just vomiting that I heard yesterday in the walk, ride and sail trip. The walk trip was pretty boring, but the other two were pretty good.

There is an arboretum very close to the university that seemd pretty scenic. Its like a jungle near the city. The sail ride was cool. Our skipper gave us some quick and cool tips about sailing. Madison has the state capitol in it and the limits that no building can be taller than the capitol. So, no Sky-scratchers(I know its scrapers!). Just very wide and large buildings. I think i will like it here, but hey.. i have just been here three weeks!! and still haven't seen the winters yet. They say all sorts of stories about winter.

Will keep posting!

United States of America!

As most of you guys (and gals) know, I am in USA for my PhD. Right now, I am a student again... :)

I just thought I would resume my blogging, so i can keep you informed and entertained at the same time. Let me start off with my trip to the USA. In short, it was tiring, but the longer verison is better!

The flight was at 1:40 AM on the Sunday morning (08/16/09... Yes... i am now in USA and as they say, when in USA.... ). I had to check in 3 hours early at the Bengaluru International Airport saying my goodbyes to my parents and my dear friends who came to see me off at the airport. It was touchy.

Gafla #1: My lugguage was 25+25+8 where it should have been a max of 23+23+14.. So had to re-arrange the lugguage in the airport. did that and checked in the bags.

After check-in, i go for the immigration check which went smoothly. Next up security check.

Gafla #2: When i re-arranged the lugguage, i put in a sealed bag into my cabin baggage. As the security checked, i froze. It had a razor, camphor and after-shave lotion in it. To my suprise, the guard somehow missed all of them and seemed to concentrate on the dal that i was taking. Luckily, he allowed me to leave with all that i had come in with.

Next up, waiting for almost 2 hours. :) Called my parents from inside the lobby. Also called them when the flight boarding was about to start.

As the flight boarding started, another Aug-15 special check was in place at the airport. Another security check. Again the guard misses all the dangerous objects and asked me if i had mirchi powder along with me (since i had dal!!!)... Too much I say!

The Flight was Air France from Bengaluru to Paris. The flight was a long one. 10.5 hrs. I slept for about 1 hour. There were two meals... both were good. The french ladies were too good. Dont get the wrong idea here, i mean to say that their treatment as hosts was too good. Their language suggests respect and plesantness. I loved saying them (repeatedly)... " I dont speak france"... Phew.. lattu bole tho lattu..

The flight lands in Paris at about 8:30 AM Paris time (12:10PM IST). I had exactly 2 hours to check in again. One would think the Paris airport, being one of the largest airports in the world, would have better system.. But noooo they had such a long check-in line. And only 3 check-in points (i.e., at terminal 2E... there are other terminals... 1, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2F, 3 with each one having about 42 gates! compare that to Bengaluru/Hyderabad's 1 terminal with 20 gates!). Anyways, after a long wait of 10 mins, my check-in process starts. Now, i was aprehensive that i would be asked to open my bag (afterall it was my BIG trek bag!)... The checking lady takes a look at it for about 2 mins.. and lets me walk. That was nice! Went to buy some chewing gum in paris airport, but the lady says " I take dollars, give you change in euros!", I said "NOTT"... ;)

Waited in the paris airport for about 1 hour.. Had a lucky coincidence of meeting a College friend at the paris airport and so played some catch-up with him. Then again, while boarding the plane, there were random checks. Both the checking people looked like Indians (or sri-lankans)... They were only stopping whites and letting all others go... :) Was nice again.

The flight from Paris to Chicago was the Air France (Again!) and this time it was a 9 hour travel. They gave me meals 3 times on this flight, but the earlier flight was more comfortable. The ladies were as charming as they were in the previous flight. By this time, i was really tierd. and wanted to sleep. so, slept over France and English channel and Ireland. Could not sleep after that. So watched "Incognito" and "The International".. then did some time pass till chicago reached.. I was suprised to note that, we flew for over 30 mins across Lake Michigan.

If you think Paris airport was big, think again... The Chicago airport had 5 terminals. I dont want to count the number of gates and all other bullshit... :)

In the flight, they had given me two forms to fill up so that we can go through immigration. So filled that out, went through immigration and waited for over half an hour for my lugguage (~ 1hour after getting off the plane!)... Took my lugguage outside... BTW, i had 2 BIG bags, one trek bag, two coats that i was carrying on me and a big book. When coming out of the airport, i had taken a trolley and i saw the bus that i am supposed to take from Chicago to Madison and started running towards it. In all the tension of boarding the bus, i forgot my book! :(

I remembered only when the bus was at terminal 3 after half an hour which was too late... The ticket to Madison is fairly expensive at $27 but is the second cheapest mode of transport after Greyhound. :) Reached Madison at about 5 when the sun was still bright. A friend from the Indian Graduate Students Association came over to pick me up in his car and dropped me to my place. He offered me to join him in his shopping, so i went along to explore Madison!

One weird thing about Madison is that the sun sets at about 8'o clock and its completely dark only after 9. Atleast right now. Also, the temperature is rapidly changing. Its already getting colder at nights (tolerable 70F... again... When in USA... ) as compared to 2 days ago when i came to Madison. I did not feel anything special being in USA. I had also expected the roads to be super smooth, which they were not. and the vehicles are noisy... but they never honk and give preference to the pedestrians.

Madison was very welcoming to me till now. Let me see how it treats me from now on!

Go Badgers!

Traffic Police and Bribes

Economics is a cool thing. The concept of trickle up and trickle down are too awesome. They just mean that something foreign will adapt to the existing environment or the environment will accommodate the foreign element.

Most people complain about the traffic police who take bribes. I think its OK for the police to take bribes. In fact, the fines should be higher for some serious offences like speeding, drunken driving, non insured vehicles, polluting vehicles and such. Something like, Rs 2000 - Rs 5000 fines will force people to have proper driving discipline, like how it is in US/UK. Each fine is about 5-10% of the monthly income of a upper-middle-class citizen. And look how that works out for them. People follow lane discipline, lesser number of accidents and the intensity of the accidents is about the same as here (except for the pile-up type accidents), but the frequency is very less comparatively. So if the fines are higher, the police will also increase the bribe fee, which is still pinching for most people. That will force people to follow the traffic discipline. As a side benefit, police will see this as an additional income and do their work more stringently and that's the only thing that matters to me. In fact, if the government allocates something like a 20% of the fine amount collected by them as their reward, the corruption could be minimized while maintaining the same duty motivation.

Alongside, the police should install more speeding interceptors, photo tickets at most signals which will increase their income and will decrease the number of traffic problems in most cities. The "Chaos" city of Hyderabad can benefit most from this sort of system. Keep logging the complaints and fines on the registration. Send the tickets to the registered address. When you catch the vehicle in the random checks, seize the vehicle if there are any outstanding bills to be paid. Sell the vehicle to others if it stays in impound for more than a year. Pretty cool huh?

Any thoughts/comments?

Cool Engineering Tools For Windows!

Well, most of these are already known to most of you. but i would like to summarize so that you can refer to these when ever you are rebuilding your system! All these tools are FREE!!

OpenOffice: A truly respectable software that gives you all the essential and some premium features of MS Word (called Writer), MS Powerpoint (called Impress), MS Excel (called Calc), MS Visio (called Draw), MS Access (called Base) and an equation editor called Math. You can save these documents in most of the formats including MS office formats (Basically supports existing MS document formats!). PDF writing is built into this software suite.

Gvim: A very powerful text editor (second to only Emacs but much easier!) and supports syntax highlighting. Its available on windows now. You can also try SciTE.

WinMerge: A powerful, yet easy text comparing and merging tool. Very useful for code revision checks.

7Zip: one word for this archive manager. Awe... wait for it... some!!!

Gimp: The most powerful image editing tool across all platforms and it is free.

IrfanView: Image viewer. Simple and fast! Supports some very cool features like hex view of the image, image transcoding, basic image edits and resizing.

ImgBurn: Simply a too awesome Disk creater. not once did it fail on me!

VLC: An all in one media player supporting almost all the codecs. Also supports streaming video and video capture. Media Player Classic is another media player which has all this features but i prefer VLC! :)

VirtualDub + AviSynth: A powerful video editing tool. You can write your own scripts for the filters or you can use the already developed ones by other users.

Video Edit Master: Video cut and join software. Fast and easy to use.

Audacity: Sound recording and editing. Used only a couple of times but liked it!

WordWeb: A free dictionary which will improve your vocabulary above and beyond.

SuperCopier2: If you have a lot of big files to move around, this is the tool that makes your job much easier. It supports copy pause and resume. Also has improved speeds for over the network transfers.

Foxit PDF reader: Really, leave Adobe and experience this fast PDF reader! Though both are free, this is faster too...

Octave: This is a MATLAB substitute. Supports almost all the functions of MATLAB and is free.

Icarus verilog + GTKwave: Verilog simulator and waveform viewer. This is the best free simulator there is!

Netbeans IDE: A cross platform IDE that supports most of the major languages. Ajax, C/C++, Databases, Debugger, Desktop, Editor, Groovy, GUI Builder, JavaEE, JavaFX, JavaME, JavaSE, JavaScript, Mobile, PHP, Profiler, Python, Refactor, REST, RichClient Platform, Ruby, SOA, SOAP, UML, Web, WSDL, XML are the languages supported by Netbeans IDE.

Perforce server and client: A modern CVS system for your code. The free server supports 2 users and 5 client spaces. You have to purchase license if you want to add more. Client software is free.

Magic and PSpice: VLSI backend tools. Very good for learning purposes. Since there are no free synthesizers for ASIC, you can not actually implement anything complex with this. For synthesis, the standard libraries are required which are specific for each process (eg. 90nm). So IMO, it will not be available for free. Prove me wrong!

If you know of any free tool that i can put up here, please do leave a comment.

Laptop Purchasing tips

Hey fellas... Buying a laptop can be a costly affair. So make sure you take the laptop after you feel confident. Here are some tips on what to look for a laptop. I started off this without planning and now feel that its a bit too big. So i will summarize below. If you are interested more, you can read the rest of the article.

Thigs to look for in the laptop

1. Mobility - more battery life (>3hrs), less weight, latest connectivity (802.11n)
2. Ergonomics - Ergonomic keyboard and mouse, less heat dissipation
3. Performance - decent processor (T6400 + or equivalent), necessary screen size (1280x800 + in 15.6" or less panels, 1920x1080 for Full HD in 16.4" panels), necessary graphics card (internal gfx Intel X4500 for light gaming and Full HD theater experience, External gfx geforce 9300+ or equivalent GPU for main-stream to higher end gaming), OS (Windows for Gamers, Ubuntu for the rest. But most laptops bundle Windows, so go for it!)
4. Aesthetics are tie-breakers only.

A laptop is better than a desktop only in certain additional features. mobility and power backup are two distinct advantages of the laptops. Of course, some laptops ace in aesthetics too. A desktop usually has higher power devices (processor and graphics) giving higher performance as well. So, you need to choose wisely when you are considering a computer purchase. Let me tell you what one should look for in a laptop. You can find many sources on the Internet suggesting you which is the best laptop in town. You can either listen to them, or you can make your own decision.

If your computing does not need to be mobile, take a desktop. Desktops are often cheap and can be upgraded and repaired easily. They are much more economical than laptops. You can connect to screens of your choice, connect a large number of PCI and USB devices. Laptops have a maximum of 3-4 USB ports beyond which you need a port multiplier. Other devices are net-tops which i personally don't prefer due to their ergonomics and then there are the tablet/ultra-mobiles which are exorbitantly priced for a decent configuration or very lowly equipped for a decent price!

Laptops are definitely most awesome mobile devices. The main advantage of the laptop is that it is mobile. So, this should be your primary concern while purchasing a laptop. Ergonomic is another equally important factor. We don't want to spend so much money on something if we are going to get hurt while using it. Performance is another aspect you want to consider and most people do consider this. Finally, aesthetics do play a role, but don't make this your primary factor. Unless you are taking the computer only to flaunt, keep this as a tie-breaker kind of thing.

1. Mobility::Battery Life: Battery life is probably the most important thing in a laptop. If your laptops runs on battery for like 1 hr., its no good now is it?? So, make sure you read how much is the max battery life on a full recharge for the laptops you are interested in. Usually, something like "up to 4hrs" is mentioned with the laptops. With regular usage, one can expect 75% of this value. Caution with going for extended batteries. They increase the weight of the laptop and also dissipate more heat when being recharged. Also, carrying an additional battery might come in handy over long travels. So, a replaceable battery is preferred.
2. Mobility::Weight: If you are moving a lot with your laptop, consider a lighter weighing laptop. Since you are moving a lot with the computer, the designers assume (for some unknown apparent reason!) that you don't move much. So the gaming laptops, large screen laptops with HD screens are all in this category. If you are well built and don't mind the extra kilo (2.2 pounds!), go to the next step. Otherwise, this should be in consideration.
3. Mobility::connectivity: The connectivity needs to be as latest as possible. For example, most of the HP and DELL laptops now ship with 802.11 b/g wi-fi cards. Going for a 802.11 b/g/n is a better idea because the 802.11n is 11x faster (600Mbps Vs 54Mbps) as compared to the 802.11g. Also, you get most of your routers with the n-standard. So exploit your local intranet games and transfers with blazing speeds.
4. Ergonomic::Input devices: Try out the keyboard and mouse of the computer you want to buy from a local store. If you are not comfortable, there is no point buying it as you will always have to carry spare mouse and keyboard. Wrong usage of keyboard/mouse can lead to RSI (repetitive stress injury).
5. Ergonomic::heat dissipation: This is more important to the guys :). If you are using your notebook as a "lap top", then you might want to check the amount of heat it generates. Again, check out the local store for the display items. Usually, the heat dissipation remains almost same with all the laptops from the same vendor in a particular category. For example, the heat dissipation of all Dell Inspiron laptops is almost the same. Of course a lot of customizable add-ons will increase the heat. The gfx card, the additional battery, higher TDP (Thermal Design Power) processors, add-on cards all result in higher heat dissipation.
6. Performance::Processor: A lot of people need a moderate powered processor. Any latest generation of processors with moderate processing power will do the job. For example, a Core2 duo T6400 processor serves most needs in the present market. Most people don't need the Core2 Duo P9600 processor which bloats the system cost and with out significant advantage because you will not be using all the processing power. However, if you are a programmer and plan to run important simulations on your laptop, you should consider a higher power processor. Going for the lower speed processor can affect adversely for mainstream users too. A slower processor takes more time to complete a task while consuming same amount of power as a faster processor per unit time. So a slower processor will take more power to do the same task as compared to a faster processor. So its important that you choose the correct processor to optimize your mobility experience.
7. Performance::display: Display is again one of the most important things in a computer. Make sure that your display is as bright as you can afford. A LED back lit display is slimmer and gives some additional power savings. The picture quality is about the same with CCFL back lit displays and the LED back lit displays. If you don't see the "LED" term in your display description, it means it's a CCFL back lit display. Choose the LED display if your budget allows you to do so. Choose your screen size appropriately. A larger screen will draw more power and will be heavier. while the smaller screens will not play the full HD content and higher resolution games. Along withe the screen size, a resolution will be mentioned. This resolution means how many dots are present in the screen in horizontal and vertical direction. These dots are called as pixels. For example, if the resolution is 1280x800, it means that there are 800 lines on your screen with each line containing 1280 pixels. A Full HD screen will be of a resolution 1920x1080 or higher. A 15.6" display can have a resolution of 1280x800 or 1920x1080. Unlike the screen size, an increase in resolution has less impact on the weight and power dissipation of the system.
8. Performance::Graphics: For most of the people, who don't play any games or play very lightly loaded games like Warcraft and such can suffice on internal graphics. The latest Intel X4500 series is good even to play the full HD movies with image enhancements. For the mid-range to heavy gamers, choose the discrete graphics cards. Discrete cards need not take more power than the integrated graphics cards. As a gamer, you would want to buy the Nvidia 9300 + or equivalent powerful graphics card. The 9300 works well for the 1280x800 resolution but you will need more powerful gfx cards for higher resolutions like 1680x1050. A geforce 9600 plus or equivalent card should serve all your needs but will definitely affect your battery life.
9. Performance:: OS: Operating systems choice b/w Microsoft Windows, Apple MAC OS-X, Ubuntu Linux and such is important. For most of the people, windows works, but is expensive. First, the OS costs a lot. Then, you require a Anti-system-harming-programs software (like antivirus, anti-spyware, blah blah). Also, you will have to keep updating these definitions every once in a while. With all this protection too, the OS crashes or hangs for no apparent reason understood by commoners (God's wrath for using a windows machine as some might put it!). Apple OS-X is cheaper in that your maintenance is low regarding the anti-virus software and such. But Apple laptops themselves are exorbitantly priced. In both windows and MAC-OS X, the software like word processors and such applications cost a lot of money. Ubuntu Linux distribution is a free software with all the programs you need for a normal computer operation. However, due to lack of direct-x in Linux, not many graphics intensive games are developed for Linux platforms in which case windows is the operating systems to go for. For most general applications, Ubuntu serves better than the other two operating systems. Its free and is bundled with all the essential tools like office, e-mail, browsers, media players, code development, codecs, games, photo editing, pdf creating, Disk creating and many such software. Whats more, you have one single update manager (also built in) which effortlessly checks and installs the updates of each software installed on your system. Also, it has the best Graphical User Interface, aka GUI (google for beryl and see) as compared to MAC and Windows. Thanks to the Open source initiative, some of these free software are now available for windows and MAC too. I will write a separate article about these software soon.
10. aesthetics are individual choice. you decide on what you like! :D

Happy shopping.

PS: I will not recommend any processor other than Intel. Because, the second most power consuming device in a system needs to be the best performer. The highest power in a system is consumed by the display.

After a lot of thinking on what to write on this post, i think i have a perfect solution. A lot of my friends and acquaintances keep asking me which is the best laptop or what is the desktop to buy. I do a lot of free consulting and assistant computer shopper roles for these people. What the heck, let me help out people who don't know about computers as much as i do.

I will be configuring the systems for different budget levels and for different needs. I will also be posting if its a good time to buy in case there are some new products that are being launched. I work with Intel presently and so, most of my system recommendations will be Intel based. Will try to give an honest opinion about AMD systems too. :)

So... Keep watching this post. You can bookmark this page for your future references. I will help you get the system you require. Leave a comment or request in the comments section and I will try to respond as fast as I can.

My name is… My name is … My name is RED… ah ah ah.. Yeah yeah… Wazzat… want me to stop.. Okay okay.. Ahem… I think that sounds might have given a wrong impression… For the record, I was trying to rap… I know I am not good with that :)… One of my friends told me that I can have a lot of benefits from blogging. Its supposed to improve my relatively poor writing skills (blame GRE for that!). Also, he told me that if I made some interesting blog, Google will give me some money… That one got me interested. After a lot of contemplation on what to write in my blog, the answer was pretty simple… what ever I like. There are like 7 billion people in the world.. And almost 1 billion people online… at the least a couple of hundred will be interested in what I am.. So… Here goes my effort to improve my writing skills and earn some money (or take some money back from Google! :D)